Trying to Fly
by wildtiger7
Summary: Cary doesn't listen to Kalinda and gets fired.


He must have stood up when he heard her key in the door, because he was standing awkwardly by the couch when she entered. She dropped her keys on a nearby table, not even bothering to look where they landed. He was her focus.

"I heard you got fired."

He flinched but tried to hide it. "Yeah."

"For going after the firm's clients." After she had told him to stop.

"Yes."

"They asked me to find out who you were working with."

"I wasn't working with anybody. I told them that."

"They didn't believe you."

He waved helplessly. "What do you need me to do? The last thing I want to do is get anyone else in trouble-"

"I told them I was helping you."

His eyes got big. He looked shocked, then once he processed that, scared. "You weren't." He said it quietly. The ground was shifting under him, and he wasn't sure how to plant his feet to ride it out.

"No," she stated. Cary tried not to read too much into one word.

He sucked in his breath. "What did they do?"

"They promoted me. And gave me a raise." She hadn't been going for either. She hadn't had a plan. She was just really angry, with Cary for being careless, at the firm for firing him.

The briefest flash of shock was replaced by a mix of pleasure and intense relief. She was treated to one of those Cary smiles, dimples in full effect. She sighed inwardly. Of course this would please him.

"Congratulations!" he said as he moved towards her. He squeezed her arm as he walked by, on the way to his liquor cabinet. "A friend of mine brought me some expensive whiskey from Scotland. I've been waiting for a reason to open the bottle." He got out a couple of glasses and poured them both some.

Kalinda watched him. She hurt for him. She didn't like to see him hurting. He was good at focusing on the positive, though. He seemed especially good at it when it came to her. She appreciated that. There was quite a bit she appreciated about him, including the whiskey he poured into her glass.

She sat at his kitchen table as he took the chair next to hers. They remained angled more towards each other, not sitting back and relaxing in their chairs. He raised his glass to her. "To new opportunities." She smiled and drank with him.

When they had both put their glasses back on the table, she asked him, "Why didn't you call me?"

He grimaced. "I knew you wouldn't be happy with me."

"I didn't appreciate being blindsided."

"I'm sorry." He looked at her as he said it, then went back to staring at his glass.

"Cary," she reached out to touch his arm at the same time as speaking. He looked up. "Tell me things." He decided it wasn't the best time to point out to Kalinda the irony of her request and simply submitted to it. "I will."

"We're okay," she said, running her hand along his arm. He gently played with her fingers. His shoulders visibly relaxed. She hadn't realized how tense he was.

After a comfortable pause filled with whiskey sipping and gentle looks, Kalinda remarked, "Alicia isn't happy."

"That is standard operating procedure for her."

Kalinda laughed. That was so true.

Cary rotated his glass around the table top. Her laughter made him think he could do anything, so he gathered up his courage and asked, "Why did you tell Will and Diane you were helping me?"

"I was mad."

"At who?"

"Everyone."

Cary smiled slightly and grimaced at the same time. "Did you expect them to make you an offer?"

"I didn't expect anything."

She could tell he didn't believe her. "Come on, Kalinda. You don't make a statement like that and not expect anything to happen."

She shrugged. "I knew something would. I just didn't care what it was."

"You wouldn't have cared if it was the opposite result, you mean," he said softly.

She nodded. _Oh_, he thought.

After another pause that Cary used to fill their drinks, Kalinda looked up at him and said, "Make me an offer."

Cary put the whiskey bottle down a little too heavily. "What?" he asked her.

"Make me an offer. To leave Lockhart and Gardner," she said patiently.

"And come work for me?"

She nodded, smiling.

Cary, still incredulous: "I couldn't afford you."

Kalinda titled her head to one side. "Make me an offer."

Cary studied her for awhile. It was so quiet Kalinda noticed the little things, the sound of the clock ticking, the hum of the refrigerator, padded footsteps from upstairs. Finally he said, "I'll make a suggestion."

Kalinda raised an eyebrow. She turned one hand over as if to say "go ahead, I'm listening."

"Don't work for Will. Don't work for me, either. Don't work for anyone. Start your own business. You're well-known in this town, you could do very well. You can pick your clients, pick the cases you want to work on. Pick who you want to work with, who you want to work for."

Kalinda felt like he was reading her a list of everything she had ever wanted as well as everything she didn't know she wanted and saying 'here'. "You make it sound so appealing."

"It won't always be. They'll be cases you'll end up hating, people you don't want to deal with. You won't have someone worrying about paying the bills for you, or dealing with things like insurance and liability and clients that won't pay."

"I could hire someone to help with those things."

Cary smiled. "You could." Was she actually considering this, or was she just being nice? Since when was Kalinda nice? Well, she had been awfully nice to him lately.

"And you'd want special privileges, I suppose?"

"No. Make me wait in line with everyone else." A mischievous grin slowly spread across his face. "Well, we could have a contract that is mutually beneficial to both parties. You help me with cases, I help you with contracts, that sort of thing."

Kalinda was grinning at him in return. He couldn't have made her a better offer. Suggestion.

"Think about it," he encouraged her. "I don't want you to work for me. But I would love to work with you."

"Me, too," she said gently, reaching up to caress his face. Even though she had known how unhappy he was at Lockhart and Gardner, she had wanted him around. She hadn't wanted to settle for just seeing him outside of work. She should have known he didn't want that, either.

He made jumping off a cliff sound so much fun. And like just the sort of thing that would appeal to her.


End file.
